The present invention relates, in general, to a process which may be utilized in the production of packaged egg products such as deviled eggs and the like.
The conventional method for producing deviled eggs is both time consuming and labor intensive. Additional problems include a large degree of variability in the finished product and excessive yield loss. The conventional method involves hard boiling the eggs in the shell, peeling the eggs, cutting the eggs in half, removing the yolks from the whites, mixing the yolks with appropriate seasonings, and dispensing the seasoned yolks back into the yolk cavity of the whites. The time, labor, and yield losses involves make deviled eggs relatively expensive.
It is therefore desirable to reduce the time, labor, and yield loss associated with the production of deviled eggs and similar products, while at the same time producing a more consistent product.
The desirability of a marketable deviled egg has already been recognized. Currently there are at least three major companies marketing such a product. All three use a similar process, which is comparable to the manner in which deviled eggs are made in the home, and hence distinctly different from the process of the invention. There are 3 major constraints to the current commercial method.
(1) Quality of the final product is limited by the quality of the starting shell egg (yields as low as 50% are currently being obtained in terms of obtaining a sufficiently high quality cooked white with proper location of the yolk). PA1 (2) The preservative step (pickling) results in a lowered acceptability of the white texture, i.e., rubbery and tough. PA1 (3) The process is labor intensive with no reasonable expectation of reducing this input.
The process of the invention eliminates all three of these constraints.
Newlin et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,400 prepares deviled eggs by starting with a blended mixture of liquid egg whites, evacuating the mixture, dispensing the mixture into a multiplicity of open molds which are egg-shaped, positioning a second mold centrally in the first to form a yolk cavity in the egg white, cooking the egg white in steam, removing the cooked egg white from the mold, and dispensing into it a mixture of cooked egg yok and seasoning. The problems with Newlin's method include the requirement of a second mold, removing the cooked egg white from the mold, and the deviled egg filling preparation procedure. These problems are explained below in detail.
The requirement of a second mold complicates the process making it more difficult to automate. A second mold would require means to introduce it into the pooled egg white and means to retract it from the cooked egg white.
Removing the cooked egg white from the mold is a step that involves the handling of a delicate material. The mechanism to perform this step must operate very gently to avoid damaging the cooked egg white. This step is difficult to automate and the mechanism to do so would be complex and expensive.
The yolk cooking procedure results in cooked yolks which are rubbery in texture. If this cooked yolk is then blended with seasonings, the resulting mixture contains rubbery pieces which result in an unsatisfactory texture.